WHAT IS MOCKPLUS?

Mockplus is a faster and easier prototyping
tool to help you make prototypes by making
interactions with simple drag-and-drop and working
on a team project easily and effortlessly. Microsoft, Oracle,
Simens, IBM, UBI, Huawei and 300+ global colleges are
using it, YOU SHOULD TOO!

10 Hottest Design Tools You Must Try in 2017

This article includes the 10 hottest design tools to make you design better in 2017, with different design scenarios and advantages of tools.

Whether you want to take your design up a level or looking to speed up your creative process, we’ve picked the 10 best design tools in 2017 to help you do exactly that. Those tools can be applied in different user scenarios, including responsive web design, app design as well as logo design. Hopefully, you can find your preferred one.

1. Mockplus - A Faster and Smarter Prototyping Tool

Mockplus is an all-inclusive tool for prototyping mobile, tablet, web, desktop as well as customized apps. Just as its CEO-Song Lau-has always advocated, this tool is devoted to finding a simple and elegant solution to the most complex ideas and problems. It has been one of the hottest prototyping tools that designers get to know and use in 2017.

The newly-released 3.0 version is a perfect fit for those looking for high-efficient team collaboration and real-time online reviewing. Plus, the ready-made 200 components and highly-visualized interactions are rare features in the competitors.

2. Figma – An Collaborative Interface Design Tool

Figma can be a relatively new collaborative UI design tool whose interface layout almost looks the same as Sketch. This tool is cloud-based and lets multiple users work on a project at the same time. The design will get automatically updated in accordance with the changes and comments. A big defect is there will be only 3 free projects, and the history version can be viewed within the latest 30 days.

3. Framer – An Open-Source Prototyping Tool

Unlike other prototyping tools, Framer is a typical tool that requires coding and programming knowledge (namely, the CoffeeScript – compact Javascript) for design. The learning curve is pretty high for most designers. Though it can have many advantages of setting complex interactions and animations, the time and efforts required to master this tool make Framer a more preferred option for programmers than designers.

4. Sketch – Vector Graphics Software

Sketch is not unfamiliar to most of us, and there is always another two vector graphics software mentioning with this tool – Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. When it comes to Sketch, we often refer to the associated plugins actually, such as Content Generator, Icon Stamper, Measure, etc. However, it only allows designers to make interactions and animations based on the UI pictures and is one of the design tools for Mac.

5. Protopie – The Brand-New Prototyping Tool

This is coming from an entrepreneurial team based in Korea, a brand-new tool for making an interactive design. It’s possible to make a completed interactive prototype by the built-in modules, without requiring coding or visual design. However, a big flaw of Protopie is this tool doesn’t support the preview on computer, text input, web-based design and export.

6. Pidoco – Web-Based Prototyping Tool

Pidoco is a web-based and cloud-based online prototyping and wireframing tool, enabling designers to test out their designs in real time, on a web browser, iOS, and Android devices. But its downside is that there is no password protection, and the built-in component templates are very limited.

7. Webflow – Online Responsive Web Design Tool

Webflow is trying to help those without programming background to make better web design and has been famous for simplicity. Its templates can be responsive on three different devices, including desktop, tablet, and smartphone. But the features are limited in the free version, and it’s impossible to access the control panel before registering.

8. Atomic – A Browser-Based Web Design Software

This is one of the design tools online with a nice user interface and intuitive timeline which requires Google Chrome to run. It requires no a desktop application. For iOS designers, Atomic has introduced a suite of iOS design elements for easier and better design experience.

10. IconFinder – The Collection of 1775000 Icons

This is an icon resources website, with a wealth of both free and premium icons to choose. It allows designers to find out the beloved icons through the keyword search, with different icon format, price, license type, icon size and other elements covered. It claims to the world’s largest icon repository site.

Wrap Up

The above are the most popular design tools recommended for every designer to try in 2017 and design software reviews can help you choose the best one. Feel free to choose the most appropriate one for your next design and please comment below directly if we’ve missed your favorite one. You may also like:

Mockplus is a desktop-based tool for prototyping mobile, web and desktop apps easily and
quickly. Create interactions
by simple drag-and-drop and your teamwork will be time-efficient with the collaboration features.